I’m attempting to broaden my taste for sweets and desire to make sweet treats. To do that, I’ll need a few good recipes. Lately I’ve gone through a few bad cookie recipes and began to feel rather unenthusiastic about making them at all. Luckily I stumbled upon this Meyer Lemon and Pistachio Shortbread from Cannelle et Vanille while searching for inspiration to use our Germack Pistachios. I have to say it was a pleasure to find this beautiful blog, the photography is absolutely gorgeous, she makes every entry feel like a dream – check it out! On top of it being so beautiful, it offered the perfect pistachio and cookie inspiration I was looking for, I had to make them at once!

This would be the first shortbread cookie I have ever baked. Certainly won’t be the last – they were delicious. Not too sweet with the perfect amount of lemon… and of course they’re loaded with butter too ;) The texture is nice and crumbly as you would expect from a shortbread cookie and they kept fresh all week. I doubled the recipe for extra enjoyment.

This recipe is adapted from:
Cannelle et Vanille

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
zest of 2 large lemons
about 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup pistachios, finely chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour

Prepare the ingredients. Be sure to soften the butter ahead of time. I used Germack Pistachios with the shell, so obviously I had to remove them before chopping. This probably took more time than the rest of the process. Once shelled, I ground them up with my Magic Bullet, it was a coarse mix with varying bits of pistachio. You could use a food processor or a knife to chop them as well. Zest and juice your lemons – the original recipe calls for Meyer’s lemons – I just used the only option of lemon from my local grocer and it worked; I admit I don’t know much about lemons! I’ll have to keep my eye out for Meyer’s lemons and see If I can notice a difference next time.

I used a stand mixer for this but you could easily do it by hand as well. First cream together the butter and powdered sugar. Pour in lemon juice & zest and mix until incorporated. Add flour and salt, mix, and finally include the chopped pistachios. Mix until all ingredients are well combined.

Roll the dough into 2 logs about 2 inches in diameter or so. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. I wrapped mine in plastic wrap – I planned on chilling them all day before baking and I didn’t want them to dry out. Clearly my logs were not perfectly round, and once they sat on a plate for a while they became even less round. This didn’t seem to affect the taste what so ever.

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Cut logs into ¼-½ inch thick disks and bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden.

As I took them out of the oven I was eager to taste, I grabbed one with in the first minute and it crumbled to pieces. My heart broke for a minute as I felt I might have failed with these cookies.  I allowed the rest to cool for a bit longer and they ended up setting perfectly. No failures here, they held together nicely and crumbled just as a shortbread cookie should.

I love crackers but have not made them myself until recently. I noticed that we haven’t purchased many, if any, crackers in the past year and when I came across JoyTheBaker’s post called Sea Salt and Poppy Seed Crackers, I knew what I had to do. So, I made crackers and they were delicious. In fact they were so nice that I have made four batches in the past 2 weeks and I’m already thinking about making another! This marks the start of my cracker hunt — must find more recipes.
Cracker recipes, where are you?

This recipe is surprisingly simple to make, it requires very few ingredients and about 10 minutes of your active time with 30 minutes or so to bake. It also lends itself to be modified with other spices and flavors. I’ve only just begun to experiment with these.

The recipe below was found on JoyTheBaker.Com
Joy found it in The Complete Book of Cookies

Sea Salt and Poppy Seed Crackers

makes 20 crackers
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4  teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 Tablespoon butter, cold and cut into 6 small chunks
1 Tablespoon poppy seeds
6 Tablespoons half and half
sea salt & additional half and half for the topping (I used kosher salt instead)

Preheat the oven to 300° F. Sift together the flour, salt and sugar.  Add the butter and, using your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until it is in tiny bits and dispersed throughout the flour mixture.

Stir in the poppy seeds.

Add the half and half and mix to make a stiff dough.  Place on a lightly floured surface and roll out to about 8×10-inches.  Cut into 20 squares.

Place the dough squares on an ungreased baking sheet lined with parchment or foil.  Brush sparingly with half and half and sprinkle with sea salt.

Bake for 30 minutes or until crisp but still pale.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool and store in an airtight container.

So far the original recipe stands to be the best (of course) but I have started experimenting with adding other flavors which promise to make a nice cracker as well. I will post about them in the future. The additional ingredients in question are crushed red pepper, cumin, and sesame seeds… stay tuned for more cracker fun and dip ideas!

My friend Ellen is about to enter her first year of culinary school; a couple of years ago she started her blog- gogochicago as a way to track what she eats and cooks as well as recipes that she enjoys and creates.  A while back she posted about her grape almond cilantro salad which appealed to me right away.

In May she threw a birthday BBQ for our friend Natalie and made this salad which was the first time I ever tried it.  It was delicious, I would probably have not considered pairing cilantro and grapes on my own although I happen to really love both of the ingredients.  Including almonds to the mix is wonderful; it adds a completely different texture as well as a new level of nutrition. This recipe is super easy to make and is a unique summer salad- perfect for any summer event.

Ingredients : red grapes, almonds, cilantro, lemon, kosher or sea salt, olive oil.

This salad is not something you should really have to measure out, but for the first time preparer it’s helpful to have guidelines to follow.  Ellen based her recipe for a single serving.  I wanted to make a bit more, 3-4 servings.  So, we adjusted accordingly and this is how we did it…

3-4 servings :: 3 heaping cups of halved red grapes, 2-3 handfuls of almonds, Juice of 1 or 1 1/2 lemon. 3 Tablespoons olive oil, 1-2 cups of plucked cilantro leaves, kosher salt to taste.

Wash and halve the grapes, pluck cilantro leaves from the stems and chop if you want.  We decided to keep the cilantro leaves whole, but I think chopping them a bit would be nice too. Mix in a bowl and toss a couple of handfuls of almonds to the mix.  We used raw almonds, toasted would also be nice. Add your lemon & olive oil and mix well. Salt to taste.  That is it! Enjoy.

Can’t wait to make this again; I would like to try adding cheese and a little spice.  I’ll let you know how it turns out!

Sweet, spicy, sour, & salty.
Mango, chili, lime, & salt.

Mango is an extremely tasty fruit on it’s own but by adding a few simple flavors you create a complex taste that is sure to excite you.

Ingredients :: mango, cayenne powder/chili powder, lime, kosher salt.

There are a lot of “right” ways to cut a mango; I have two methods that I use regularly.  The first method is straightforward and obvious.  Use a paring knife to remove the skin, avoid cutting off too much meat.  Start by cutting off a small piece from one of the long ends, turn it on that side to rest tall and begin to slice off the skin.  At the beginning I like to hold it in my hand, but towards the end I like to rest it on the flat spot because sometimes the mango can get very slippery to hold, this helps prevent you from dropping it or squeezing it too much.  Once the skin is removed, make the first cut from the top of the mango along side of the seed.  The seed/pit is in the center of the mango, long and ovular about ¾ of an inch thick, you want to try to get as close the seed as possible in order to get the most meat.  Repeat and cut from the other side.  You’ll be left with two nice hunks of mango meat, cut whatever is left from the shorter side and finish by cutting the pieces to the desired size.

The second method is a little more fun and beautiful looking.

Turn the mango on it’s side to make it tall, cut two pieces from each side of the seed.  Slice a grid into the mango piece without cutting through the skin.  Flip the  skin of the mango to push the meat forward creating a “hedgehog” shape. Use a paring knife or your fingers to remove the pieces. You can also eat the mango directly off the skin.

once you have your bowl of sweet add your sour, spice, and salt to taste!  I usually cut up 2 mangoes, 1 lime, and add the salt and cayenne a little at a time until it’s just right.  stir up and enjoy.  This is one of my absolute favorite flavor combinations!